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Category Archives: Gardner & Dyke

In 1970, Ashton, Gardner & Dyke somehow ended up supplying the soundtrack music to an obscure Western starring football star Joe Namath. Also important to the soundtrack’s composition and performance was Deep Purple’s Jon Lord, who co-wrote the score with Tony Ashton and shared keyboard parts with Ashton as well. Like many soundtracks, it’s a jumble of pieces that might have served adequately as background music to specific scenes, but doesn’t sustain much interest for a record listener. The musicians tap into a wide variety of styles and moods, mostly instrumental with occasional vocals, from good-time laid-back bar band boogie and dramatic pseudo-spaghetti Western orchestrations to atonal keyboard patterns, tedious hard rock-funk, and Latin cocktail jazz with bizarre scatting. The individual tracks, though, are neither too good on their own, or too similar to each other, failing to create an inviting mood. (by Richie Unterberger)

Screenshot from “The Last Rebel”

Jon Lord was the keyboard player with Deep Purple, and is renowned as one of the best Hammond organists to come out of the UK. While Deep Purple played rock, this album features some unbelievable way-out funk! Really odd prog-influenced, wah guitar horns and massive breaks. Look out for the killer old-school funk cut ‘Hanging’, and the wicked breaks of The Last Rebel. Definitely an oddball LP – there’s a heavy dose of strangeness lurking in the arrangements – but a worthy addition to a funk soundtrack collection, and a producer’s dream. I’m still in shock after listening to it.” (by Ed Griffiths)